A CLARE coroner yesterday returned an open verdict in the cases of a teenage brother and sister who took their own lives in the space of 10 weeks earlier this year.
Ennis Coroner's Court yesterday heard that the father of the brother and sister found them hanging in the back of their home in January and in March this year. On each occasion he cut them down in a bid to revive them.
The inquest heard that the teenage boy had drink taken. He was unresponsive to his father's attempts to revive him and was later declared dead by a local GP.
The inquest heard that 10 weeks later his student sister was out shopping with a friend in Limerick and returned home at 12.45pm. Her father found her hanging from a tree in the back garden of the family home sometime around 2.40pm. He cut her down from a rope and attempts were made to revive her but she was declared dead at the scene.
The mother of the teenagers said that in the time leading up to her death her daughter seemed okay, but was a bit down and she broke up with her boyfriend in March. The inquest was told that the sister of the dead girl later found a note in her bedroom dated 1pm on the day of her death.
